CartoVista 4.0 What's new (PDF version)
CartoVista 4.0 Viewer
Mobile device support - Apple iOS, Google Android and Blackberry 10
The CartoVista 4.0 SDK allows developing mobile applications for the following platforms:
- Apple iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod)
- Google Android
- Blackberry 10 and Playbook
The CartoVista mobile SDK allows to leverage the capabilities of mobile devices (GPS, cameras, etc.) to develop innovative applications.
In particular, the SDK offers the possibility of storing data locally, which enables applications to display data faster and work without an internet connection, which is very useful when entering data in the field.
A free sample application is available on:
New drawing and annotation tool bar
CartoVista 4.0 includes a brand new drawing tool bar to create map annotations, highlight features, add comments or draw objects directly on the map.
This new toolbar allows creating a drawing/annotation layer to the map and adding notes or map features (point, line, polygon or text) directly on the map.
The tools include advanced functionality such as specifying the feature styles (fill, stroke, symbol, pattern, opacity, etc.), rotate map objects or reshape the nodes of polygons and polyline objects.
The possibility of saving map annotations exists with the CartoVista SDK (depending on the needs of the users, the database/server technology available, etc.).
New print layout management tools
This new module allows users to build custom print layouts to create high quality outputs.
This new print layout module is useful for example to create documents that conform to the look and feel (graphic chart) of your organization.
Automatic labelling and leader lines for point layers
The CartoVista Viewer 4.0 includes advanced labeling techniques for point layers while respecting as much as possible the rules of proper cartographic representation.
When the concentration of points is very high, it is often difficult to associate the label with its corresponding point. In addition to the automatic mode, CartoVista 4.0 includes the ability to turn on "Leader lines" to link the points to their labels in case their position is not obvious.
New output format for layers in ESRI Shape format (Geometry) - Performance enhancements
CartoVista 4.0 includes a new type of layer optimized with a spatial index that allows to work with a larger number of map features, get a faster map display and a smoother map navigation. The maps are in average 2 times faster with this approach. This new type of layer is published in the ESRI shape File (.shp) format. This format allows to be compatible with applications running on mobile devices (Apple iOS, Google Android and Blackberry 10).
Enhanced styles for geometry layers (drop shadow, inner glow, outer glow, etc.)
It is now possible to add graphic effects to layers that are setup for an output in ESRI Shape File (Geometry).
CartoVista 4.0 Publisher
Enhancement of thematic analysis configurations
The CartoVista 4.0 Publisher includes new possibilities to manage the thematic analysis configurations by specifying custom content for the legend. This menu is accessible from the Themes Configuration Dialog, after creating themesets.
For themes by unique values, it is also possible to reorder items using drag and drop.
Print Configuration Dialog
A new Print Configuration dialog is now available in the map window. It allows preparing print layout templates. Those templates are then available in the CartoVista application, as described in the New print layout management tools section.
The purpose of this dialog is to let the administrator define the content of the templates, and the level of flexibility available to the user to modify them: paper size, inserting additional content, removing some of the template items, or moving them around, etc. The administrator can also decide to lock everything. In this case, the only option available to the user in the CartoVista application is to use one of the available templates.
Alternatively, the administrator can decide to let the CartoVista application user creates its own template directly in the CartoVista Viewer.
Server Layer Management - Creating a server map
CartoVista 4.0 allows data administrators to easily create and update their server maps. The map files used in a server map can easily be sent to the server through a user friendly wizard. When you are updating a server map GIS data, the publisher only transfers the files that have changed.
Server Layer - Enhanced tools for using server maps
To use a server map in a CartoVista map, all that is required is to drag and drop the layer in the desired map.
Server map samples
The integration of server layers in the publisher greatly simplifies the process of publishing different types of interactive map, no matter what the data size is.
Tile Generator - Performance enhancements
The performance of the tile generation module has been enhanced significantly. In particular, working with map layers that include advanced graphic effects (inner glow, outer glow, blend mode, drop shadow, etc.) has been fully optimized.
New Tile Providers
New tiles providers are available in CartoVista to offer new cartographic base map options for your projects.
- CloudVista Tiles
- OpenStreetMap German Style
- OpenStreetMap Black and White
- Thunderforest OpenCycleMap
- Thunderforest Transport
- Thunderforest Landscape
- MapQuest OSM
- Esri DeLorme WorldMap
- Esri OceanBasemap
- Esri National Geographic WorldMap
User Interface Enhancements
The Viewer Configuration dialog has been updated with a new presentation to integrate all of the new options . The Attribute tab in layer properties for attributes, info tool, data tip and search have been updated so that they are easier to work with when setting up the interactivity options of your layers.
New user interface styles
A new option in the publisher allows to select the interface style to use for the graphic user interface of the viewer.
Labeling option - Character Spread
This new option available as an advanced labeling property allows great cartographic rendering of linear features. When activated, the associated label text is spread along the path of the line feature.
This option is available only for tile layers and server maps.
Vertical Mapper Grid Support
Vertical Mapper numeric and classified grids can now be used as raster layers in CartoVista.
Enhancements to the tile providers
The tile providers tab in layer properties allows configuring some of the options for tile layers such as the list of providers and the order in which they appear for the tile base map.
The tile provider for IGN (Institut Géographique National – Géoportail in France) properties have been enhanced with several new options.
A new generic World Mercator Tile provider has been added to connect to new tile providers.
Other enhancements and new features
- Duplicate layer: A new function is availalable in the layer menu (right click) to duplicate a layer. Right click & copy property values in Map file properties dialog.
- Redraw window: Users can now use the Control-D keys to redraw their map window.
CartoVista 4.0 Software Development Kit
New SDK Samples (WMS, WFS, Marker Clustering, etc.)
The CartoVista SDK has been greatly enhanced with several new samples that showcase how to use CartoVista API to develop rich applications.
The following sample applications are available as part of the 4.0 SDK.
SDK Sample - Connection to OGC Web Map Service (WMS) Layer
This sample application shows how to setup and add a simple Web Map Service layer to your map.
SDK Sample - Connection to OGC Web Feature Service (WFS) Layer
CartoVista can connect to WFS layers via the CartoVista SDK because WFS support requires some configuration in order to properly integrate in CartoVista. The CartoVista SDK helps this process by defining:
- The styles to represent the layer (style classes, etc.)
- The interactivity of the layer
- The attributes used for info tool, datatips, selection and search if the layer is interactive
SDK Sample - Display Marker Clusters for point layers
With this SDK sample, CartoVista point layers can be displayed with a clustering display option. This option is very useful when displaying layers that contain a large number of points.
Points that are close together are aggregated in a single symbol (circle in the example below) and displayed with a label that outlines the number of map features. The algorithm used to determine how points are grouped is optimized to get fast rendering speed.
Integration with IBM Business Intelligence - Cognos Report Connector Component
The key concept in CartoVista is the logical separation of the map from the thematic (indicator) data. CartoVista applications can take advantage of this and be setup to bind with external data, such as the measures contained in business intelligence reports.
The CartoVista 4.0 SDK includes samples on how this can be done with simple, easy to use tools. Integrating with Business Intelligence Software enables the deployment of seamless enterprise location analytics solutions.
The CartoVista 4.0 Software Development Kit is released with an IBM Cognos Report Connector Component developed in ActionsScript and Javascript. This component allows to dynamically bind the Cognos report data to an embedded CartoVista map. CartoVista maps embedded in Cognos Report offer the same rich thematic mapping functionality as CartoVista on the web, with the benefits of the live connexion and bi-directional links with the report and its underlying data. The component supports advanced report interactions such as drill-down, drill-up and drill-across from the report and from the map.
NOTE: The Cognos Report Connector Component in the SDK needs to be installed in the Cognos web application folder to ensure that the CartoVista engine can properly integrate with the Cognos software.
CloudVista - Generating tile maps using the power of cloud-computing...
As part of the CartoVista 4.0 release, DBx GEOMATICS inc. is pleased to introduce new capabilities to leverage the power of cloud-computing for the setup and update of tile base maps.
CloudVista 1.0 is a new tile generation service that is hosted in Windows Azure: Microsoft's Cloud Platform. It provides the ability to generate tiles very efficiently and store them in Windows Azure.
Leveraging the scalability of Windows Azure cloud computing platform, CloudVista offers a service that can handle large amounts of map data and generate atlas-quality map tiles in hours instead of months. This processing power comes with Windows Azure storage services, which provides scalable, secure, performance-efficient storage for the tile map-image data.
The CloudVista service is cost effective and very efficient. It allows generating and maintaining complex base map data (street network, etc.) with the flexibility to scale up to meet growth demands.
CloudVista includes a tile access service running within Windows Azure that allows CartoVista applications to access the map tiles. Hence, you can manage CloudVista within the CartoVista Publisher and the maps tiles can be retrieved on demand and seamlessly by the CartoVista viewer.
CartoVista 3.8 Viewer
Automatic Positioning of Map Labels for Point Layers
When working with point layers, the CartoVista 3.8 viewer includes the possibility to
improve point layer labelling by specifying the Automatic position option. This
settings instructs the viewer labeling engine to calculate a label position that will
not interfere with other labels. Each point is labeled by trying different successive
positions around the feature until no overlaps are found. This method is very useful
to increase the map legibility and the number of successful label placements.
Data Type for Map Feature Attributes
With CartoVista 3.8, attributes for map features are no longer limited to strings.
Attributes now have proper data types, as defined by the map source (e.g. ESRI
Shape file or MapInfo table) in the CartoVista Publisher. This allows the viewer to
properly sort numeric attributes or display them as a chart.
Mutiple Product Key / Deployment Licence for more than one
server
Since CartoVista 3.7, it is required to enter a Product Key for web deployments.
Product keys are linked to the domain where your application is deployed.
In order to facilitate the management, CartoVista 3.8 allows to specify multiples
keys that can correspond to your IT environment, which ofter is composed of
multiple web servers (development, staging, testing, production, etc.). The map
configuration file (XML) includes the element LicenseKeys which allows to enter
multiple keys.The keys are managed and entered easily when publishing a map in the CartoVista Publisher.
Other Enhancements
- Multiple Bug fixes and Enhancements for Charts and Data Tables Windows
- Enhanced labelling (collision detection)
- Added Support for IGN Tiling service GeoPortail 3
- Other bug fixes in the viewer and SDK
CartoVista 3.8 Publisher
Blend Modes used inside the Publisher
Blend modes were always available for creating effects between two layers in the
CartoVista Viewer. Now it is possible to see the effects inside of the Publisher as
well.
One example of when blend modes can be useful is in a tile map window. It allows
to create advanced map layer compositing with a shaded relief (e.g. using the
multiply blend mode).
Layer Effects (Inner Glow, Outer Glow and Drop Shadow)
New graphic effects have been added to enhance the cartographic rendering of
Polygon and Polyline layers.
Inner Glow, Outer Glow and Drop Shadow effects can be used to create original
layer outputs with precise control on the glow and shadow rendering.
NOTE: These options are only available for tile map windows. Version 4.0 will
support layer effects in normal map windows.
Each effect option includes several parameters to control its appearance on the
layer such as:
- Color
- Opacity
- Size
- Strength
Multiple Tile Providers in One Layer
Having a Tile Provider as a base layer sometimes requires the ability to toggle
between several different tile providers. An example would be to allow the user to
switch between an aerial view to a road based view.
It is now possible to have only one Tile Provider layer in your map, but still give the
user a choice of multiple tile providers to display. This simplifies the layer control
for the end user, and reduces the number of layers that are required to give the
user options for Tile Providers.
Interactivity Feature Attributes & Data Display User Interface
Update
The user interface to select Feature Attributes and assign Data Display options,
such as Data Tips, Info Results, Selection columns and Searchable columns has
been updated to make the interface easier to use.
User Specified Tile Providers
The number of tile providers that can be added by a user has been greatly
enhanced with version 3.8.
There are now four types of common tile providers that can be added by the user:
- CartoVista Tile Provider from DBx GEOMATICS
- ESRI ArcGIS World Mercator
- IGN Geoportal 3
- Tile Cache
Other New Features / Enhancements
Packaging Maps
The concept of map packaging is new in CartoVista 3.8 to help manage and
facilitate data transfers.
Packaging maps allows you to collect all the source data files, fonts, images, etc.
that are needed for a Map Window into a single .ZIP file. This allows you to transfer the map between different users or computers, and ensure all the relevant data has
been included.
Point Symbol Style Rotation from Column
Point Symbols can now be rotated based on the values found in a specific column of
the data set.
Folders in Local Map Source Manager
In order to assist in organizing Map Files within the Map Source Manager, you can
now create folders for Map Files within the Local section of the Map Source
Manager. This will allow you to easily group your map files, as well as create new
maps from all the files within a folder quickly.
CartoVista 3.7 Viewer
Thematic Analysis on Server Layers
Enhanced Legend
The legend window has been altered to display a more compact visual style with better
spacing and legibility
Product Key / Deployment Licence
Starting with CartoVista 3.7, a Product Key will be required for your deployment.
This Product Key is linked to the domain where your application is deployed.
Other Enhancements
- Ability to specify map layer opacity in the layer control
- Optimized panning (in particular when there are many objects on the map)
- Enhanced Search Window
- Enhanced performance for the selection in terms of display and drawing
- Optimized Heatmap Themes
- Expanded indicator display modes for data tips and the info tool
- Faster calculation of statistics in the selection window
- Other bug fixes and enhancements
CartoVista 3.7 Server
Thematic Analysis
CartoVista 3.7 includes the capacity to create thematic analysis on server layers.
Server layers were introduced in the previous version of CartoVista, and are very
useful to overcome the limitations of Adobe Flash in terms of the number of objects
in a map layer.
Server layers make it possible to work with map layers that contain a very large
number of objects.
CartoVista 3.7 Publisher
Geospatial Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) Support
The CartoVista Publisher 3.7 includes full support for the following relational
database management systems:
- Oracle Spatial 10g or later
- PostgreSQL Version 8 or later
- Microsoft SQL Server 2008 - Spatial
Map layers can also now be created from spatial data in these databases and included
in a CartoVista SWF map.
Configure indicator data from the Layer Properties dialog
Now indicators for each thematic layer can be configured as you setup the layer
properties, without having to use a separate workflow. The Data Publisher is still
available from the Tools menu for complete flexibility in configuring indicators.
New Tile Module for Creating and Publishing Tiled Base Maps
The new Tile Publishing Module allows you to create your own tiled base map, using
your GIS data.
CartoVista 3.7 Tile Generator
A new type of map window, the Tile Map, has been added to the CartoVista Publisher
to build the cartographic content for tile base maps. Additional parameters and
extended object and labelling styles are available to create very high quality and
customized outputs.
Tile Base Maps can be created to match the World Mercator Projection (EPSG:3857)
compatible with Google Maps, Microsoft Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, Open Street Map and
others. Tile Base Maps can also be created in any other coordinate system to match
your specific needs.
The tile creation process is fast, allowing generating about 30 tiles (images) per
second on a normal workstation. Detailed zoom level control allows you to create
only the desired zoom levels necessary. Tiles images will be created locally or
on a network location in a structure that is optimized for data access.
CartoVista 3.5 Viewer
Server Layers
With server layers, CartoVista 3.5 includes a new set of mapping capabilities that
go beyond the limitations of Adobe Flash vectors to now enable the deployment of
more complex GIS data. Working with live GIS data stored in map files (e.g. ESRI
Shapes or MapInfo tables) or in relational databases (e.g. SQL Server), customers
can integrate live data in their CartoVista application. With raster and vector
mode rendering, server layer open up a new world of possibilities for dynamic map
content.
In terms of styles, server layers can feature advanced cartographic rendering with
extensive labeling options, for a high quality mapping experience.
Server layers are deployed using the CartoVista 3.5 Server component, developed
for the Microsoft Windows server platform.
Heatmap Thematic Analysis
Heatmaps offer a new type of thematic analysis that can be created from point data
to highlight relative density in a dataset. Heatmap analysis use color to clearly
depict areas of higher density on the map (e.g. red meaning more points, blue meaning
less). This new type of analysis can be created with a large number of points in
a few seconds. The heatmap analysis radius can be configured in the thematic settings
in pixels or using map ground units (kilometers, miles, feet, etc.).
Data Table Toolbar
The new data table toolbar now allows copying the table data in the clipboard and
creating chart from the data table columns.
Enhanced Info Tool Window
The info tool window has been enhanced to properly show the feature styles and allow
the end user to copy the data to the clipboard.
The info tool window can also be configured to display the geographic coordinates
of the point clicked.
Enhanced Selection Styles
Selection styles in CartoVista 3.5 have been enhanced to clearly depict the selected
items using a halo color around the selection. The selection color can be configured
in the CartoVista viewer to control how map features are rendered when they are
selected.
Accessibility Enhancements
With the recent adoption of accessibility standards around the world, one must ensure
that people with disabilities can access the content of websites and web applications.
Creating accessible CartoVista maps is part of this challenge while creating exciting
and engaging experiences on the web.
CartoVista 3.5 has been enhanced to leverage the accessibility advantages of the
Adobe Flash® platform, including support for Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA)
and other assistive technologies. Users can now use their keyboard to navigate within
the map. The challenge of accessible maps is to remove any obstacles that prevent
screen readers or keyboard-only tools from functioning effectively when rendering
map and related content.
CartoVista 3.5 Publisher
New Map Tile Providers
CartoVista 3.5 includes new map tile providers (CloudVista, ESRI ArcGIS worldwide
data) to showcase the tiling capabilities.
Map File Filters (Expressions)
In CartoVista 3.5, the map file manager includes the capabilities to define filters
using expressions. This is useful if you want to only display certain features from
a map file and avoid having to create a copy or a subset of your source GIS data
files. Filters can be defined with:
- Simple expressions (a column, a logical comparison operator and a value, e.g. Population_2006>50000)
- Complex expressions (where one or more attribute columns are compared to values
and if necessary combined using AND, OR and NOT operators)
- Regular expressions (where a single attribute column is compared to a Regular Expression
of type RegEx).
Multiple Map Windows
In this new version of the publisher, you can create and work with more than one
map window at a time. This improves the usability of the product to enable simultaneous
publishing tasks.
Enhanced Usability in the Data Publisher
The CartoVista data publisher has been enhanced when working and saving data views.
If the indicator data you are working with is not found when you republish the data,
you can now simply relocate the missing files. Overall, CartoVista 3.5 provides
a tighter integration between data publisher and linked map window. These improvements
include the capabilities to sync changes to thematic layer and output folder names.
The data publisher also has common keyboard shortcuts to help manage the properties
of your indicators (Delete, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, Ctrl-X, etc.).
Management of Multiple Themes
The CartoVista Publisher 3.5 includes the capabilities to define multiple themes
for your map. Using theme sets, you can package multiple thematic views of your
indicator data using a simple user interface. The publisher allows to easily create,
delete or rename theme sets that are published as a clean and simple dropdown list
in the CartoVista viewer.
CartoVista 3.5 Software Development Kit
Comprehensive Documentation - New Set of Rich, Opened Components
The CartoVista Software Development Kit (SDK) now includes detailed API documentation
on all of its internal packages.
Each class is defined with its object model, its properties and functions to allow
developers to properly inherit from components or work with the events model to
develop custom functionality.
The API documentation includes a description of all of the CartoVista underlying
user interface components and their associated skins. Developers and designers can
modify the application skin or inherit from an existing UI component to extend or
modify the behavior.
In particular, the SDK includes useful user interface components such as the dockable
windows and pods which can be used to create custom windows with just a few lines
of MXML code.
CSS Styles Support
The CartoVista 3.5 SDK includes sample CSS file that showcase how to use Cascading
Style Sheets (CSS) styles in Adobe Flex 4 to customize the look and feel of a CartoVista
application.
Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 Samples
In addition to the API, the SDK now includes sample Adobe Flash Builder projects
that showcase how to use CartoVista and get started to build interactive mapping
applications with concrete examples.
